FullMetal Dragoon
by Slade1987
Summary: On an isolated island, Edward and Alphonse Elric defend the treasure their father left to them.


In the deep gloom of the caverns a red-gold eye opened and a slitted pupil eyed its surroundings dubiously, the red drake raised its long neck upwards and gazed around at its brood shaking its mane of frilled spines as it did so and letting out a low moaning yawn. Something was not right, it could smell it in the air from the airshafts that let air into the warmth of the sulfurous caves in which they dwelt. It sniffed again, the sound loud and booming in the silence. Its eyes narrowed in anger as it recognized the smell, petrol, diesel, steam, and steel. The red's lips drew back to reveal massive teeth in a snarl as the drake reared up to its full towering height in the darkness and opened its jaws fully letting out a full bellowing roar that echoed throughout the caverns, the other drakes woke as well, slowly at first but as they too recognized the scent that had brought forth their sire's ire; they joined in his fury and soon the entire mountain was shaking with the sound of dragons and their world shattering cries.

High above the labyrinth of caves Edward and Alphonse could already see what the dragons below could smell and they were both worried.

"This is the fifth time this month," Alphonse said worriedly, his blue eyes reflecting the frown on his face. "Why can't they just leave us alone?"

"They're afraid," Edward said his expression no less worried though he seemed calmer about what was coming.

They watched as the small dots on the horizon began to grow bigger and take shape into the ships they really were. Both boys turned at the rumbling behind them as the massive red stepped out from the recession in the mountainside and looked out at the distant ships, snarling furiously, fire burning in its eyes.

Alphonse held up his hand and the massive drake lowered its head to have its frill stroked and it rumbled affectionately. "Even Vorix is upset, ssshhhh," he soothed the big red gently as he continued to scratch the dragon gently.

"They're launching." Edward said, and Alphonse followed his gaze to see the small specks, aircraft rising into the darkening sky. "And there's going to be a storm," there was a flash from one of the larger ships and a moment later a portion of the mount above the trio erupted, causing a small rockslide, Vorix spread his massive wingspan and sheltered the boys from the falling debris.

"We'd better stop them or they'll collapse the airshafts," Edward said tiredly as he turned to see more dragons leaving from other openings in the rocky ground. He walked up to a large gold, putting his hand on its paw, the dragon knelt, purring loudly as Edward climbed up on its shoulders and ran his hand over its shoulder. "Hi Vespere, I'm sorry but we have to fight again."

She turned her head around and her pearlescent eye looked at him as if to say that it didn't matter, and she didn't blame him for the problems they suffered. Ahead of them, Alphonse had climbed up onto Vorix, Vespere moved forwards towards her crimson mate and rubbed against his side and nuzzling against his neck with her head, he responded with a low rumble and brushed against her in turn.

Alphonse smiled, real pleasure on his face, "you think we'll have another clutch soon?"

Edward shrugged, though his voice was sad "I don't know, it'd be nice though, the caves are pretty empty these days, they've killed so many."

At the mention of the deaths, both the drakes affectionate rumblings turned to growls of fury, everyone thought that dragons were stupid brutes, but they were more intelligent than most people the brother's found, and far more understanding. More dragons had joined them on the ledge now, there were over a dozen of varying colors, most of them were younger, broodlings from Vorix and Vespere, there were very few older dragons anymore, the boys only had one other breeding pair, they'd had a total of three before, but Goyle had lost his mate, Titani in the last attack. The brothers doubted if Goyle, a large black, would come out to fight, he'd been brooding incessantly over the three eggs that Titani had laid weeks before and refused to leave them, even to feed himself. Thankfully the dragons' sense of community was strong, and the others brought portions of their kills for the mourning male so there was no fear that he would starve.

There was another shot from the fleet's battleship and the dragons collectively flattened themselves as the shells hit the mountainside below them, without a word form the boys the drakes spread their wings and leapt, powerful leg and forelimb muscles launching them into the sky, where their mighty wing beats created a weaving cross current of tempest winds. They circled, watching for the aircraft that had been launched earlier, searching the skies for their metallic nemesis. The storm clouds blotting out the sun made it all the harder to see the opponents, but the dragon's eye was a marvelous thing and eventually one member of the flight caught site of a plane and dove, the others followed, their wings folding against their flanks, dropping bodies armored in inch thick scales at their targets.

Edward felt the thrill of the dive as his vision blurred from the wind lashing at his face and his long hair whipped in the dive. This had once terrified him and he had screamed for his life the first time he'd dove this way. Now however, the motions of a dragon were so familiar to him that this was just part of their beauty and his world. He twisted his head around in the wind to find his brother; Alphonse was to his left his expression equally elated as the flight dove for their attackers. As the first of the dragons drew close the planes they opened their maws and spat their fury at their harassers, acid, flames, and in rare cases sonic blasts tore into the first waves of planes as they rose to face the oncoming drakes.

The plane's scattered in every direction, the fighters peeling away from the bombers in an attempt to draw the angered beasts away from their more vulnerable stable mates. The dragons weren't that foolish though, they knew that the sluggish aircraft were the more dangerous to their home and extended meter long claws to rend and shred metal from fragile frameworks, the gunners in the bombers opened fire where they could, peppering scaled flanks with bullets, these first stings were little to the drakes, many of them had scarred hides beneath the scales where bullets had pierced their armor in past battles. In these first moments there were no deaths amongst the drakes as the planes fell in droves from the skies. Seeing that their ploy had not worked, the more agile fighters turned to reengage, that was when another flight of dragons burst forth from the frothing sea below and tore into the aircraft with their own attack.

Pinned between the dual assaults the fighters scattered, abandoning their bomb laden brethren to their fates as they were torn apart rivet by rivet, weld by weld by dragon tooth and claw. The fighters circled for a time, before they dove back into the fray, their machine guns and cannons firing hot vengeance for their fallen associates, the first dragon fell from the sky, an emerald green, cannon shot had entered through its eye and destroyed its brain case. It had been a painless death, and the drake clung to a wrecked aircraft even in death, as if hell bent to take its enemy to a watery grave for them both as it plunged and sank into the white crested waters below. This death only served to infuriate the remaining drakes more, and they filled the sky with their breath attacks, downing many planes as they left what remained of the bomber force and turned to face the deadlier fighters that were now fully concentrated on dragon slaughter.

All around him, Edward could hear the screams and cries of dragons in all their rage as they raced after the faster aircraft, but where the planes had speed, the dragons had agility and they used this to their advantage, often flying upside down beneath an unsuspecting plane and tearing out its gearing from below, letting the now dead machine fall into the turbulent waves below. Vespere did this more than once, and each time Edward clutched at her sides with his gloved hands and booted feet, the cleats on his palms and soles finding hold on the hardened scales as she fought ferociously for the lives of her brood. Edward remembered when his father had first shown them the dragons, and explained their power for good in the world, and gone on sadly to explain that they were a rare creature that was becoming ever rarer with the passage of time and human prejudice.

He had been safe guarding this bastion of the species diligently, but now matters had called him away, so he had trusted the task of protecting his hidden treasures to his sons. At first they'd feared the terrifying and vicious dragons, but in time they'd found that they were like any other animal, their trust could be won, and once it was the rewards were many. Once they had learned how to care for and foster this trust, their father had left them with a warning, that men would come for them one day and attempt to steal or kill the dragons he was entrusting to their care. For two years they'd taken care of their charges, being taken care of in turn by those same charges. Two years of nothing but happy memories and excitement; it had been paradise, then the first signs came of the men their father had mentioned. They'd come in ships like they had today and shelled the unsuspecting dragons on the island mount, killing many before the drakes were able to leap into the sky and destroy their attackers.

That first day had taught Edward and Alphonse an important lesson, never let the ships get close enough to fire, only the longest range guns could hit beyond the horizon as the one today had done. The others had to get much closer, and since then they had not let a single fleet get that close ever again. With that, the men had come again, this time with planes and now the battles were waged in the air as well as the sea. Heat swept his memories away as a burning plane fell past him, or rather above him, nearly knocking him from Vespere's back, she roared worriedly and craned her neck around to ensure he was still safe, he tightened his grip on her scales, letting her know that he was still there. He didn't want her to be too distracted, otherwise she might be injured. There was a lull as she began flying back towards the wheeling battle above them, this gave Edward the chance he needed to look out at the fleet, and they were drawing closer, far too close. More of the ships, not just the big battleships, would be coming into range of the island soon.

He shifted against Vespere, and she accepted the signals, following his guidance towards Vorix, the massive red male was a blaze of fiery fury in the midst of the fighting as he swatted aircraft from the sky as if they were mere gnats and not armed killing machines.

"Alphonse," Edward called, cupping his hands to his mouth, his brother looked up and Edward gestured to the fleet. His brother followed his gesture and then nodded as he understood. Vorix and Vespere were the first to dive towards the fleet, and soon they were followed by other drakes. Vespere headed for the aircraft carrier, diving through the rain of shells and bullets that rose to greet the oncoming dragons. Several fell into the sea, wounded or dying, those that could began swimming back towards the mount and the submerged caverns that would lead up into the warmer caves were the dragons lived. Those few deaths spurred the remaining drakes to new fury, and in Vespere's case, she raked the carrier with her sonic blasts, destroying aircraft and machinery alike, Vorix followed in her wake, raking the deck with a stream of flame that doused the carrier's flight deck, any hope for return for the pilots fighting the dragons had just been dashed.

Edward signaled with his arms and legs, and Vespere turned back to the stricken carrier, flying low over the deck now and hovering for an instant as Edward released his grip and dropped to the armored flat top. The gold drake rose back into the air to continue wreaking wholesale mayhem and destruction upon the fleet that was threatening her home. Edward stood up from the crouch he'd landed in and looked at the now burning island of the carrier, a lone figure was standing there, sword in hand as he strode towards the lone boy that had dared attack him directly. Edward reached out his hand and converted a portion of the deck into his signature spear, spinning the blade out and facing his opponent as the Commodore stopped well out of reach of the longer weapon.

"Why do you persist in protecting these beasts boy?" He asked disdainfully, "they are abominations and menaces that need to be exterminated."

Edward didn't listen to his words, instead drawing himself into a guard as the Commodore began to circle him leisurely despite the flames leaping across the deck around them.

"Did you know that your father is rotting in His Excellency's dungeons right now? The fool actually tried to persuade the court that dragons were a gift of nature and should not be brought to oblivion. The fool has as many lashes now as a dragon does scales."

Edward bristled but did his best to keep his temper under control, the dragons depended on his protection, and he couldn't leave Alphonse alone here either, it'd be too cruel he had to be calm.

"Considering your father's stature," the Commodore sniffed, "I must say that I find your height, or lack of, disappointing and uninspiring." Edward's eye twitched as he fought for self-control. "He made you sound like quite a terror, to find such a puny child after his stories of how powerful an alchemist you are," he waved his hand dismissively, "it is rather sad really."

That was all he could take, "who are you calling a speck-of-dust-that-you-need-a-microscope-to-even-notice!" Edward roared, leaping towards his opponent ferociously as he swung his spear.

The Commodore was not expecting the attack, but he was able to catch it on his sword, he twisted the blade expertly and smiled smugly as Edward lost his spear in the resulting parry. His blade rested against Edward's neck as he smiled cruelly.

"Anything you'd like me to tell your father before you die boy?"

"Yeah, duck." Edward said smugly.

Vorix slammed into the deck, the Commodore spun to find himself standing face to face with the red's gaping jaws and he screamed in horror as the dragon's mouth snapped forwards and engulfed him in one quite bite, taking man, blade and all into the deadly embrace of his fangs.

Edward picked himself up from the deck, dusting off his jacket as he smiled up at Alphonse, "thanks Al."

"You lost your temper again didn't you brother." Alphonse said with an exasperated tone, he looked around at the burning carrier. "We've sunk the battleship, the other ships are retreating…can we finish it now?"

Edward nodded, clapping his hands to the deck, a massive rending tear opened in the armored hull below the waterline and the ship began to list heavily. Edward reached up and grabbed Al's hand, his brother pulled him up behind him and they both clung to Vorix as the red leapt off the sinking carrier and headed back towards the sea mount and the caves they called home.

Alphonse looked back at the burning and charred fleet, "how many more people will they send to die to kill us?"

"A lot more I think," Edward said forlornly, feeling very tired as he flattened himself against Vorix's warm scales. He was looking forward to returning home, and catching some sleep while he could.

"Ed, look," Alphonse said excitedly as they neared the mount.

Edward looked up and spied Goyle, his black scales blending with the dark rock of the mountain standing at the mouth to the caverns, bellowing a greeting happily. Around his massive clawed feet stumbled four tiny dragonets, hardly any bigger than puppies as they bumbled about their father's feet mewling pitiably. The sight brought a smile to Ed's face, there was still hope, no matter how dark everything seemed, there would always be hope.

Author's Note: So this was something I cooked up a while back in high school when listening to Nightwish's Dark Chest of Wonders, for some reason I just had this image of a WWII era fleet going up against some very ticked off dragons under the very caring protection of the Elric brothers, go figure. Anyways, the reason I'm writing this piece instead of the two stories I'm actually working on (Hades Wing and Stormset) is because I'm suffering a bit of writers block and writing something completely irrelevant often helps me get out of that so there. I don't really intend this to go anywhere, however if you read this and decide you like it, let me know. If enough people call for more, I'll turn this into a new story.


End file.
